The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a reply brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the limited scope of relief granted by the district court which held the federal handgun purchase ban for 18-20-years-olds was unconstitutional.

In 2025, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit held that the law preventing the purchase of handguns by adults under 21-years-old was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and remanded the case back to the district court for entry of judgment. Unfortunately, the district court severely limited the scope of the injunctive relief to only those SAF and partner members who live in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana and who were members at the time the judgment was entered (Jan. 27, 2026). SAF and its partners appealed the scope of that relief. The government subsequently issued a policy stating they would no longer enforce the purchase ban for adults under 21 nationwide, taking the position that its voluntary non-enforcement was sufficient to moot the case. Despite the government policy paper taking the position that the purchase ban was unconstitutional, it has continued to fight SAF's appeal, arguing that expansion of the court order is inappropriate.

"What's at issue here are the fundamental rights of young adults all over the country," said SAF Senior Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. "But, in the course of this appeal the federal government has taken a number of contradictory and self-defeating stances. The government's position is that it agrees with both SAF and the Fifth Circuit that the law is unconstitutional, but because it now recommends not enforcing the ban against anyone the case should be moot. Out of the other corner of its mouth, however, the government is fighting tooth and nail to have the injunctive relief that we won at the district court – which prevents that same enforcement – from being expanded to protect more people. Today's brief explains exactly why the government's present policy of non-enforcement is insufficiently permanent, and why our members need, and in fact deserve, the protection of a court order."

As noted in the brief, "…the Government has offered no evidence that the actual defendant in this case, ATF, has ceased enforcement or instructed licensed dealers to process handgun purchases by 18-to-20-year-olds." SAF is joined in the case, FPC v. ATF (formerly Reese v. ATF) by the Louisiana Shooting Association and Firearms Policy Coalition.

"This brief was filed almost six years to the day of the original case filing in 2020," said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "If the government had its way, the 18-year-old SAF members who could take advantage of the injunction would have been members when they were 12 years old, and that's just preposterous. This case has dragged on long enough, and it's time the government accepts defeat and allows this unconstitutional law to end up where it belongs – in the wastebin of history."

For more information visit SAF.org.

The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.